InsideFurniture

ATTRACTING AND DELIVERING: The complementary possibilities of High Point and Las Vegas

Punto Alto y Las Vegas, the high point and the meadows, complements geographically and topographically, now commercially complimentary: More show room, more opportunity.

No one doubts that opposites attract. The seemingly polar difference of Las Vegas and High Point is obvious — bold neon with distinctive structures and the village of nondescript showroom boxes, save one, Showplace — but, nonetheless, complementary. 

Let your mind wander in a positive context. Yes, opposites attract, forming an alloy and ally for strength. 

I attribute most of the mercantile marriage of High Point and Las Vegas to the thoughtful intervention of Bob Maricich, president of the World Market Center and a sagacious planner honed by his contemplative, yet active pastime of fly-fishing.

So aptly metaphorical, fly-fishing, is the relaxing intensity that provides solitude for the engine of ingenuity, allowing the unconscious mind to benefit from potent detachment. 

The big catch, High Point and Las Vegas, emerges from the patience of the fly fisherman, always casting, always optimistic, teasing with the attractive, delicious- appearing fly, so irresistible. It’s all about proactively identifying opportunity just below the surface of the still and sometimes churning water. 

When Bob relocated to Las Vegas a few years ago, the move prompted curious thoughts, even some doubts. I had them, so did others, given the implied and expressed challenge. Even so, I am not surprised that the confident fly-fisherman didn’t give up in attracting the big fish that he knew were there, here and everywhere.

Clear retrospection confirms Bob’s methodical style, his assiduity and what can be an obsession to succeed personally and professionally despite the detractors. 

I recall years ago when I visited the Century showroom late in Market. I encountered Bob, hunched over a table, peering intently on draftsman plan of a big custom job. In shirtsleeves a top navy New York-pin stripped trousers, stylish Bob looked up, invited me over. 

In the view minutes together, we discussed business and marketing opportunities. I presented Bob with a smart marketing device to captivate his interest and prompt a discussion about brand positioning and reinforcement. With delight and earnestness, he thanked me for the opportunity to share progressive ideas. I planted a seed.

Reflecting on those moments, I realized that Bob was always planning, finding new streams into which to wade and cast mental lines to attract and catch ideas and possibilities. 

Now Bob comes back to North Carolina as a thoughtful fly-fishing New Centurion, casting with confidence to attract and catch the business from patience in alternation between the streams in the meadows and high points. 

I have no doubt about Bob’s tenacity. He’s just doing what he does best, in the active stream, casting, contemplating and ready to attract the mercantile fish and getting into position to deliver sustained opportunity.

Viva Punto Alto y Las Vegas! 

 

THE M.A.D. MARKET: Attending High Point Market is Making A Difference for retailers wanting to make a difference

Hey retailers go M.A.D. — Make A Difference — at High Point Market, as a courageous sign of strength even as the going is tough. Be tough, smart and proactive and make a difference!

Easier said than done? Maybe, but business won’t be any easier if you’re done discovering new ways to be different in merchandising and marketing. Doing nothing is doing nothing and being indifferent is doing nothing, and that’s surrender.

Smart retailers are fresh and different because they are actively fresh and different, giving themselves the added oomph to attract attention for the people still in the market for furniture and home furnishings.

Business is there. Go M.A.D. for it. That’s the reason to invest in going M.A.D. in High Point. Think of attending High Point Market this way: The showrooms are similar to an inspiring coach who makes you do something you may not want to do but glad you did.

Seize the power of the economy. Recognize that people want to live comfortably. They are staying in homes, not selling, but probably wanting to know how to make a difference.

Help them Right-Size their homes with multi-tasking furniture discoveries in High Point, where just walking around the constellation of showrooms will prompt ideas. That fresh perspective will open new merchandising horizons.

Retailers who understand the improve-don't move mentality will reward themselves. Get more information: Right-Size Your Home, a new book by Gale Steves. Full disclosure: I am working with Gale to help retailers and manufacturers seize the power of a new way to successful marketing. Gale will conduct a lively Right-Sizing seminar (trade only) on Sunday afternoon, October 17 at 4 o'clock, Courtyard Tent, Market Square.

Back to going M.A.D. in High Point, to make a difference. This will be a rare buyers market where you are literally thinking out of your box — your store — making a difference.

Visit all new showrooms. Tell your regular vendors your M.A.D. market plans to exert a little positive tension. Sure, they may bristle, but they are likely to go M.A.D. in their own way, deciding to make a difference and induce you in ways you never would have known unless you attended market.

No retailer of any size can honestly declare staying home, doing nothing makes good marketing sense when a world of new ideas awaits them in High Point. Expecting and hoping for different results by doing nothing different is surrender. Anyway, hope is not a sufficient strategy, never was and never will be.

For successful retailers, even in a terrible economy: Distinction is the difference, a verity in good marketing.

Go M.A.D. at High Point Market make a difference. Want more reasons. Download the Business Outlook booklet and the Market Planner to realize the benefits of going M.A.D. in High Point.

 

BRASSIERES, PANTIES AND FURNITURE: The relationship between cherished undergarments and home dressing is all about an evolved perspective of life

Most men in furniture could benefit from recognizing and cultivating their feminine dimension.

Men possessing a healthy feminine perspective probably enjoy a more balanced and fulfilled life, personally and professionally.

Of course, for some straight men, the mere thought they could actually possess any kind of feminine dimension prompts defensiveness, snickers and varying degrees of discomfort that can unleash a torrent of baseless fears.

Get over it, guys. A man (an industry) in touch mentally with his feminine side has little or nothing to do with sexual orientation, but everything to do with human orientation.

The reality is men possess a feminine dimension embedded within their psyches, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. If you’ve got it, use it.

For savvy men, tapping into this fantastic, rewarding and fascinating reservoir actually demonstrates and enhances strength, confidence, courage and expanded empathy. Sounds manly to me.

Possessing gender balance acknowledges in a profound way a verity we all know: Women see and feel the world differently than men. This fact is good and necessary, just as much as the converse is: Men see and feel the world differently than women.

The difference is where the twain meets, which is the other verity: Most women are accustomed (out of survival) to thinking (out-thinking) like a man much more than most men know how or want to think like a woman. For any men still fidgeting about this concept, I said think like a woman and not necessarily act ss a woman, if that really matters.

Okay, enough psycho analytics for now. So what do men’s feminine dimension have to do with brassieres, panties and furniture, anyway?

Quite a bit because the relationship between cherished undergarments and furniture is all about a person’s grounded perspective of life. It's what she holds near and dear, literally and figuratively. 

Personal undergarments and home dressing are powerful personal expressions and acknowledgments of how a woman feels about herself. Foundations are critical for stability, physically and mentally.

Any doubt whether a woman's sensibilities about herself significantly influences and shapes her action? 

Clearly, her action defines the depth and confidence she possesses in the way she honors and recognizes her special self and the comfort she can provide and influence in her life and others.

Now about brassieres and panties. Whether simple or ornate, these undergarments possess significance more than function for woman.

In women’s psyches, underwear becomes integral, actualizing adornments, honoring and holding a special package as a nurturer of life, in a decidedly special way of acknowledging and sensing herself that few men may ever contemplate, although they should.

My observation is not advocating a case for cross dressing physically, but is an argument for mentally comprehending the significant difference and acting accordingly — cross gender thinking for whole brain health.

Why? Women’s innate sense of needing special adornment is necessarily conflated with their unique world-view, affecting virtually every way they comport their lives.

Regarding furniture, she seeks to validate her innate sense of personal “specialness” and responsibility and extends this tremendous gift of perspective and empathy to her environment, all the more critical in a familial setting.

For all the furniture men, getting in touch with your feminine dimension would help you realize that women validate their world to discover ways to adorn their lives and family whenever possible.

So, when women are bombarded with reflexive male injunctions (marinated in testosterone) and declarations about price and discount, they immediately disregard and dismiss the insulting bluster. It's the equivalent of a rude whistle or a fatuous catcall to compensate, possibly, for insecurity and lack of self esteem.

Women instinctively filter the blather to discern how the latest gimmickry-filled promotion could be helpful in any way to them and their family of one or several to live better and more comfortably with furniture.

If they can’t discern how furniture can become a special adornment to their home (and their lives), they leave the store or studio, reject the ad or click to another website.

Guess what?: Women know they have to pay for furniture, and that all stores provide some kind of financing program.

Men in control of their feminine dimension are aware of this reality. They act to succeed for a simple reason of: Transforming furniture’s typical message into an aspiring adventuresome invitation is to inform, guide and educate women wanting to honor a store for earnestly helping them discover how to live better and more comfortably.

Good things are in store for courageous men who really know the difference between men and women, and willing to think and act about it.

UPFRONT AND PERSONAL: Promoting personal integrity as a distinct advantage

If the past is just prologue, then my post — slightly modified from a previous blog incarnation — still possesses intriguing gravitas.

As you can see below, the upfront and personal marketing concept can be helpful to merchants and manufacturers seeking simple and effective ways to differentiate themselves.

Building personal relationships is what good business is all about. 

Putting a personal face on advertising could persuade people that a no-hype, honest approach possesses integrity.

Here's a full page newspaper advertisement (click to enlarge) worthy of emulating  according to needs of a specific market, demography and merchandise assortment:

 

 

INDUSTRY JOURNEY: Moving from ME to WE can reposition industry

My friend, Charles Simmons, known as Seemore to friends, is a High Point sage, a lovable and persistent gadfly whose polite intrusiveness always provides and provokes keen insights that could help furniture industry out its doldrums.

With sparkling eyes, this octogenarian  always sees (seize) and dispenses practical wisdom. More people need to hear him instead of dismissing his insights.

Simply put: Seemore believes in achieveable socially responsible turnaround — from ME to WE, a vertical flip from narrow interests to the greater good.

Seemore’s curbside wisdom inspires more thought. In a catchy phrase (others have used it, too) the dense simplicity of ME to WE can be a marvelous catapult, a lauchpad for High Point and the High Point Market. 

Incidentally, few others in the industry, business community and area governments have invested the personal time and energy as Seemore.  

Yes, words are cheap compared to the rigors of rewarding action. From ME to WE sounds good as a delectable thought.

Thoughts in the absence of action are only brilliant and momentary skywriting, blown away by the next profound gusts of terrific ideas in the absence of action.

For ME to WE to succeed in High Point beyond the brainstorm and mental typhoon, this tantalizing perspective needs transformation into responsible action.

How will the fragmented furniture industry congeal to benefit from ME to WE?

The first step is leadership, a willingness to sublimate ego, move past unenlightened self-interest and, if I may employ a mixed metaphor, row together in the figurative vessel called High Point.

Let’s row together. Who will earnestly join ME to WE? Contact me:ivan@insidefurniture.com

ANSWERS FOR GENERATION WHY: Pulaski’s ‘Tangerine’ collection confirms the power of counterintuitive marketing based on savvy ethnography

Don’t think of pink elephants! Well you did. Gotcha. You (and I) couldn't help it because our minds think quickly in pictures and associations.

Well, the same, smart marketing psychology underscores Tangerine, an out of the ordinary furniture orchard name and collection that apeels, make that, appeals to a generation attuned to questioning for authenticity.

 

So, what does Tangerine have to do with furniture? Not much, except as a fresh thought and action path to attract business from an unconventional association. Why? Because it is delightfully and innovative, different, cool, edgy and superbly counterintuitive. The operative word is counterintuitive, a concept the furniture industry needs to know for marketing success.

 

Ask Ed Tashjian, Pulaski’s (Home Meridian) enthusiastic chief marketing officer, about counterintuitive strategies. “We give retailers a unique and memorable marketing story right for a demographic segment in tune with what is attractively different,” he says, demonstrating that being thoughtfully different can mean business.

 

What Pulaski has accomplished is to help us think of tangerine furniture, as the fruit of marketing insight. Tangerine is a seemingly incongruous link that immediately prompts the “why” questions from Generation Y who wants to know why.

 

The Gen Y cohort group, aged 25 to 35, personifies a technology gadget lifestyle, which is a key element in Pulaksi’s marketing strategy. Here’s where the ethnography comes into play.

Pulaski studied how the Gen Y-ers live and work, and that disciplined attention (research) of human behavior is ethnography, an important element in effective marketing. If you don’t know how your market's lifestyle, how can you meet their needs? Guessing or hoping isn't a strategy. Duh!   

 

What did Pulaski learn?: Gen Y-ers have limited disposal income, as most are on the verge of building households. They need smaller scale and functional furniture. That means they can be attracted to furniture whose function is congruent with their tech-savvy lifestyle. 

Armed with fresh knowledge, Pulaski is betting Gen Y-ers will be receptive to the Tangerine 30-piece collection, especially its nightstand, featuring an internal gadget recharging station, which is literally and figuratively top drawer in every way.

 

Given Pulaski's understanding of savvy marketing to Gen Y, Tangerine probably has sustainability, and that means for retailers the new collection can be more than a one nightstand.

DELICIOUS TURNAROUND?: Tasty economic indications for an appetizing High Point Market likely to satisfy hungry industry

Stylish caterer Chef Brad Semon says double digit increases in catering orders and higher food quality for the Spring High Point Market entertaining constitute a delicious indicator of an economic turnaround for a business-starved industry.

From the perspective of two decades of catering a spectrum of showrooms, “I can tell the furniture industry is more confident now a turnaround is here. My business is up this market and so are unique menus for parties and events, all of which conveys thoughtful planning,” he explains from a bustling kitchen at Painted Plate Catering, Greensboro.

Given the lean times the industry has been experiencing, Semon’s rosy business prediction is hearty, nourishing news. “While it is subtle, this indicator is sturdy, and still a good reason to begin feeling more optimistic,” the affable chef declares in between cooking and sampling some of the attractive menus. 

Urbane yet practical, Semon says food quality and its presentation always makes the difference, especially in business entertaining. “The High Point Market is all about quality and style. The wrong food, just as the wrong product, can affect business,” he observes. “People remember the food, and if that’s what keeps in the showroom, the investment returns business.” 

For market time or any business entertaining, “The food tells its own story, informing your customers how you feel about them and yourself,” Semon says. “When business calls for making a difference, just another sauce on the meatballs is not a strong branding and marketing statement when your customers expect more.”

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Opinion written 9 years ago still timely and provocative

Every so often, I haul out a Guest Column written for the Business Journal of the Triad.  Now nine years old, the then edgy column appearing below still provokes vigilant hope, while stirring frustration, consternation, amusement and melancholy.

I invite you to read it with an objective frame of mind, a perspective incorporating past, present and future.

My desire is to provoke a positive colloquy, using the insights and thoughts as mortar to continue the worthy objective of saving and sustaining High Point as a nucleus (in more than name) the undisputed home furnishings capital of the world.

Achieving what has become an illusive objective still stirs within my being. For High Point to continue to be the high point, considerable work still needs to be done with a collegial attitude and action.

Your comments are welcome.

February 23, 2001

VIEWPOINT: Viva Las Vegas? High Point Needs the Catalyst

By Ivan Saul Cutler

For High Point and the region, a portentous good news-bad news scenario swirls around dramatic plans of savvy Western developers to create a potentially competitive mammoth furniture market complex in Las Vegas.

The good news: A nonexistent, yet plausible, "threat" becomes a positive stimulus to the newly constituted High Point International Home Furnishings Market Authority.

It seizes a real opportunity to intensify and transform a semi-annual event into a world-class mercantile juggernaut, a progressive and evolving home furnishings industry resource to establish an attractive home-centric commercial nucleus.

In contrast, the bad news scenario: The market authority reflexively dismisses Las Vegas ambition as only a fleeting nuisance, a distraction, provoking unnecessary talk and ridiculous speculation about the unthinkable -- High Point's furniture market could disintegrate, lose prominence and cause serious economic dislocation.

Instead of seriously acknowledging why a Las Vegas market has captured the imagination of the industry, the authorities assume an insular worldview and narrowly view the market and its future.

The market authority becomes an institutional Mr. Goodwrench, existing primarily to repair and modify the market's perpetual infrastructure annoyances of limited parking, inadequate transportation, lodging shortages and related user issues arising from an unwieldy phenomenon.

Time will tell whether any element of the good news-bad news scenario becomes reality. What will become evident is the need for vision, involved responsibility and "out-of-the-box" thinking, factors essential to determining whether High Point remains the undisputed world commerce and exposition center for the home furnishings industry.

In rolling the furniture market dice right now, High Point can win and win big. The reason is obvious and real.

A High Point market actually exists and could change faster to meet the needs of the world than the time necessary for Las Vegas to grow from an ambitious idea to a glittering, neon furniture market oasis in the sands of the Nevada desert.

In gambling parlance, the house always prevails over time, while perpetuating the tantalizing illusion that sustainable winning remains an option. In the furniture market business, High Point is the house, the powerhouse.

The "winning" against High Point is in the regional and supplementary markets in San Francisco, Tupelo, Miss., and, to a lesser extent, Dallas and Atlanta.

If a Las Vegas furniture market blooms, the bold venture likely will emerge as a potential mercantile earthquake ready to severely shake away San Francisco as the premier regional market.

In the unlikely scenario that a mammoth Las Vegas center actually grows, the expanse will have been nurtured and fertilized by limited planning in High Point.

To remain the powerhouse, High Point has to seize the energy of the Las Vegas project and use it to tone and build existing flaccid market muscles.

The first step toward market flexibility and greater fitness incorporates an objective self- assessment, commitment and realistic potential. Then comes the hard exercise to build new business muscle and attractive social contours to sustain attention.

Good coaches -- the industry itself -- will motivate the market authority to do what it may not want to do, but be glad it did after the results are happily noticed.

For starters, the market can reflect the evolving needs of a world industry in becoming an empowering commerce-teaching-learning resource rather than a semi-annual event.

Instead of levying taxes to fund objectives, authorities can operate the market as an innovative, revenue-generating marketing enterprise that provides important information services, insight and opportunity all to a responsive industry.

The impact will be an infusion of capital to stimulate continuous growth in High Point, the enviable home-centric business center of influence.

As an evolving world exposition, the market can remain a powerful economic muscle in meeting the expectations that people bring with them to High Point.

Such action will sustain market longevity in attracting people who will change their attitude and want to come to High Point instead of expressing a reluctant need to participate.

The international home furnishings industry will respond positively to High Point potential, as an old friend extending a well-planned gracious welcome instead of gambling to survive.

TRUST MARKETING: Decades of honored retailing return big double-digit increases in business for Steve Phillips in Saint Louis

Real simple: Smart merchant Steve Phillips is laughing all the way to the bank. At his Ashley units serving Greater Saint Louis, he will end the year “hugely ahead.”

At a time when other merchants mumble sorry and sordid tales of mercantile woe, Phillips smiles broadly, declaring that investing in building trusted relationships burnishes a glowing reputation that attracts and sustains friends doing business with  and as friends.

Oh, yeh, it's investment marketing because Phillips' simple method of satisfying customers who eagerly become ambassadors, spreading the positive news of honor and ethics. So simple, yet so difficult for other retailers who just don't get it.

For decades, Phillips conveys trust, honor and respect, allowing him to declare with conviction and humility: “We’ve been treating our customers right a long time and it’s paying off . . . with our business ending the year hugely ahead in big double digits.”

Expect more in 2010 from the Phillips honed brand of trust marketing, a natural virtue his family practiced for nearly three quarters of a century. Phillips operates four Ashley HomeStores in Missouri and has reinstated the Phillips Furniture brand in Gateway City and across the Mississippi River northeast in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Converting the couple of Ashley stores to Phillips Furniture, reinforces a trusted name, permitting Steve to compete with his Ashley units comfortably with the complementary new stores featuring more contemporary styles set in a lifestyle merchandising context. He also competes with his brother’s Weekends Only Furniture units, Crate & Barrel, Ethan Allen, Rothman, Value City and others, all of whom maintain the pressure.

Incidentally, what a great story of friendly brothers competing with one another in the same city.

Trust marketing is from-the-heart customer service, a branding distinction, a Phillips tradition he can take to the bank especially in a down economy.

FURNITURE IS HOMELESS: An industry stressing sales over living comfortably perpetuates stress and misery

Ending homelessness in furniture means getting off the street begging for sales and into homes on the sustaining value of living comfortably.

So what business is it, anyway? Selling or satisfying people who want live comfortably?

Both you say with a tight smile. I say you’re wrong.

Furniture is demonstrably about satisfying people wanting comfort, design and style within a context of living comfortably.

Sales is all about selling and satisfaction is all about providing comfort.

Sales is a function and providing comfort is a desired condition, virtue and responsibility.

Sales driven companies do damned near anything and everything to drive sales.

Comfort driven companies reinforce, well, duh, comfort with design and style to live better and, guess what, more comfortably.

As long as furniture marketing stresses sales, with all the diversionary freebies, gimmicks and ploys, the industry will be homeless, out on the street begging and clamoring for attention with sales talk.

Getting inside homes demands the sophistication of total honesty, flowing from a compelling desire to help people live better and more comfortably.

The marketing message is always comfort: What it is, how to get it and why it brings pleasure, harmony and tranquility.

The faster the furniture industry conveys living comfortably provides more satisfaction than a fancy automobile the faster more furniture will have a home in which to furnishing lives with, you guessed it, comfort.